I-X Beer Fest and Beer Radio Podcast

by Renee on May 15, 2011

If you didn’t attend the I-X Center International Beer Fest because you were on the fence due to the change from the previously advertised “unlimited” tasting, to 30-40 sample tickets (depending on whether you bought the regular or VIP ticket) I hope you went anyway and had a great time working your way across the very large venue. My husband Paul and I had media passes, were given 40 tickets, and never even came close to using all of them. The event was very well-organized, with breweries grouped by region, and lines were practically non-existent. There was a Real Ale Bar where you could try cask-conditioned ales (I really loved the Thirsty Dog Imperial Black IPA), and a VIP area with food and a lounge-like setting as well. I sampled the Goose Island Nightstalker and Sam Adams Wee Heavy while we were there–both intense and delicious!

Several stages offered a variety of speakers and Friday night’s included Fred Karm from Hoppin’ Frog Brewing, who was showing the crowd the infusion process he uses for Café Boris–a Russian Imperial Stout made with espresso beans. It’s always interesting hearing from the head brewer about the inspiration for their beers. Fred was entertaining and passed out samples to the eager crowd. What a knockout brew! Other favorites included the Willoughby Brewing Company Peanut Butter Cup Porter, the Imperial Creme Brule Java Stout from Kuhnhenn Brewing and Pizza Port Tarantula Black IPA.

We had the chance to hang with a lot of our favorite craft beer people–not just from Ohio, but all the way from Florida as well, as Road Trips For Beer’s Gerard Walen made the trip to the Buckeye State for the event! And I also got to meet my ticket give-away winner, Scott Pappada, the luckiest craft beer lover in NE Ohio.

Meanwhile, Ginger Johnson from Women Enjoying Beer sent me the link to our recent show on Beer Radio. You can listen to it here. Hope you enjoy our conversation–it includes a few shout outs to some familiar names in brewing and blogging. Cheers!

damn beer advocate, lol, anyways, the base of the cafe BORIS is the imperial oatmeal stout BORIS the crusher, then run through the espresso coffee beans as im sure you saw like I did Friday night at the beer fest.

i am enjoying your blog, and i was interested in the Girls Pint Out mention you had, I know my girlfriend would be thrilled if there was a chapter in CLE, do you have any more information regarding this?